Land owners, military nonprofit prepare to build home for wounded military member

Charlie Hall, Sun Journal Staff

Saturday

Aug 3, 2013 at 12:01 AMAug 3, 2013 at 1:30 PM

ARAPAHOE — Retired mechanical contactor Russ Richard and his wife Karen considered themselves among the fortunate when they retired to Pamlico County two years ago, built a home and later purchased a 23-lot subdivision — Nature’s Run on Dawson Creek.

ARAPAHOE — Retired mechanical contactor Russ Richard and his wife Karen considered themselves among the fortunate when they retired to Pamlico County two years ago, built a home and later purchased a 23-lot subdivision — Nature’s Run on Dawson Creek.

Richard sat up in bed one morning with an idea.

“I thought how my wife and I have been fortunate in life,” he said. “God has been good to us. We should take the opportunity to give one of the lots to a returning disabled vet.”

He tried reaching out to a number of nonprofit groups that assist vets, but “nobody called back.”

A call to the state VFW office in Raleigh brought the name Mike Dorman and his multi-faceted nonprofit Military Missions in Action.

Plans have evolved quickly and they hope to have a disabled vet and his family ready to move into a new home by the end of the year. Dorman is in the process of identifying the veteran.

“We want to be finished and hand over a set of keys to a furnished, decorated home the week before Christmas,” Dorman said. “Just envision the family walks in. The tree is up. The lights are on and the gifts are under the tree. We want it ready to walk in and live, because we want them to make Pamlico County part of their life.”

Richard said the goal is for the recipient to have long-term plans here, hopefully someone from Pamlico County or at least Eastern Carolina from one of the surrounding counties.”

By the time of the groundbreaking, plans call for a flag pole to be erected near the house and entrance to the subdivision. It is being donated by the newly formed local Marine Corps League.

The lot, located at the entrance to subdivision off Kershaw Road, is about an acre in size, landscaped and ready for the home to be built. Dorman and Richard are finalizing plans for a groundbreaking, with construction to begin immediately.

“It is going to be a very nice house,” Dorman said of plans for the 1,800-square-foot home. “We want enough living space for a family of four, but we don’t want so much upkeep and maintenance and taxes that they lose the house in five years because they can’t afford to keep it up and pay the taxes.”

The house will have a garage, screened porch, three bedrooms and two baths.

“We don’t need to be building 3,000-square-foot homes,” he said of his organization’s mission. “We need to be good stewards of the money that is given to us. Let’s help more people instead of building mansions.”

“It is going to be kind of like a Habitat build where we have people coming in to help us out,” he said. “And we have David Sawyer, who has donated his license and his expertise to oversee the project. That way we have a builder who knows everything that is going on, plus he is already licensed in this area. He already has a rapport with the county. That is going to make our job a lot easier.”

Dorman and Richard are hopeful that it will become a community project.

“As I tell people, there are those who are from here, those who come here and those who are sent here,” Dorman said. “You have to have all three to make this project work. We have to have three partner legs to make it work — the business community, the civic community and your spiritual community.”

Dorman is retired from the Coast Guard, with duty time at Emerald Isle and Fort Macon. He has a group of core volunteers who have assisted on past rehabilitation projects for vets, but he hopes local volunteers will come forward.

He has already enlisted the assistance of a single Marines group at Cherry Point air station who bring groups to assist on some weekends.

“We’ve also talked to mission groups from other parts of the state who want to help,” he said. “And we want people from the local community who are willing to come out and spend any day they want working.”

Richard is a Navy vet from the early 1970s, who worked in the boiler rooms. From there, he transitioned into commercial and industrial work.

He and his wife retired here from north New Jersey two years ago and built a home in Merritt.

“We built a relationship with our builder, David Sawyer,” he said.

Sawyer originally started the waterfront subdivision, with 10 lots on Dawson Creek permitted for docks and 12 inner lots permitted for slips.

The infrastructure was established, including streets, utilities and a walking trail. But Sawyer was a victim of the recession, and Richard and his wife bought the subdivision last fall.

Sawyer is now the builder for the subdivision and will volunteer toward the building of the Hero’s Home.

Military Missions in Action has provided more than $2 million in services through various programs — Operation Building Hope, Homes For Healing, Military Child Access Assistance Program, Fill The Footlocker and Operation Warrior Golf.

Projects have reached west to Kannapolis and east to Wilmington and other points along the North Carolina coast.

For information, call Military Missions in Action at 919-552-1603 in Fuquay-Varina or 910-603-5999 in Southern Pines. Richard can be reached at 497-6925.

On the web: militarymissionsinaction.org

Charlie Hall can be reached at 252-635-5667 or charlie.hall@newbernsj.com.

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